Woman Tapes Her Dog’s Mouth Shut And Uploads Photo To Facebook

A woman in Florida decided it would be a good idea to quiet her barking dog by duct taping its muzzle shut, then had the even more stupid idea of posting a picture of her sad chocolate Labrador Retriever to Facebook. Katie Brown, as she is known on Facebook, caused outrage when she uploaded the photo with the caption “This is what happens when you don’t shut up!!!”

(Picture Credit: Facebook)

The picture sparked outrage as it went viral. Brown later posted, “Don’t panic everyone it was only for a minute but hasnt [sic] barked since… POINT MADE!!!” If the point was that Brown is a cruel idiot, then the point was indeed made. The posts prompted many concerned animal lovers to contact the police. Brown was out of town at the time of posting the photo, but the police are investigating and will question her when she returns. Hopefully she will face animal cruelty charges.

Dogs bark. It’s a natural behavior. There are many safe, loving ways to train dogs not to bark, and none of them involve using harmful materials to keep a dog from opening its mouth. There is no reason to ever put duct tape on a pet. It pulls on fur and causes a good deal of pain and stress. No animal should have to go through something like that, and anyone who would even think to do it shouldn’t own a pet. Period.

UPDATE: The woman was arrested and charged with animal cruelty. Police found that the dogs were in good health and well cared for, so they could not remove them.